Tom lives in Dunlap and works in Peoria. There are 5 possible routes t...
Step 1: Read the question carefully & understand the objective
The objective of the question is to find the number of routes to go from Tempe (Friend’s home) to Peoria (Work) via Dunlap (Tom’s home). That is, the objective of the question is to go from Tempe to Dunlap AND to go from Dunlap to Peoria.
The information given is:
- There are 8 routes from Tempe to Dunlap
- There are 5 routes from Dunlap to Peoria
- Per the question, Dunlap lies somewhere in between Tempe and Peoria
Based on the above information, we can draw the following diagram:
Step 2: Write the objective equation enlisting all the tasks
In order to write the objective equation, we first need to determine the tasks that need to be done to accomplish the objective.
The objective here comprises of following tasks:
a. Task 1 – Go from Tempe (Friend’s Home) to Dunlap (Tom’s Home)
b. Task 2 – Go from Dunlap (Tom’s Home) to Peoria (Work)
Now, let’s look at the objective statement again:
“The objective of the question is to go from Tempe to Dunlap AND to go from Dunlap to Peoria.”
Since the objective equation has an AND between the two tasks, we will put a multiplication sign between the number of ways of doing each task.
Therefore, the objective equation will be:
Step 3: Determine the number of ways of doing each task
a. Task 1 -Go from Tempe (Friend’s Home) to Dunlap (Tom’s Home)
Per the information given in the question, there are 8 routes between Tempe and Dunlap.
Thus, there are 8 ways to do Task 1.
2. Task 2 -Go from Dunlap (Tom’s Home) to Peoria (Work)
Per the information given in the question, there are 5 routes from Dunlap to Peoria.
Thus, there are 5 ways to do Task 2.
Step 4: Calculate the final answer
In this step, we plug the values obtained in Step 3 in the objective equation:
= 8 X 5
= 40
So, there are 40 different routes by which Tom can go from Tempe (Friend’s Home) to Peoria (Work).
Looking at the answer choices, we see that Option E is the correct answer.